How To Use Ad Retargeting On Attendees As An Event Organizer

Retargeting - it’s when you see something on Facebook or Instagram that you swore up and down that you had just talked about or visited. Also called remarketing (Although we’ll call it retargeting for this post), it’s also something that is massively overlooked by most event organizers. Not only is retargeting cheaper than traditional marketing, it also has a strong ability to convert attendees. There is an old advertising saying: It takes 7 interactions with a brand or product before a person makes a choice to purchase. Retargeting is one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to turn a prospective attendee into an attendee. In this post, I’ll discuss how retargeting works (and why it works), platforms you can use retargeting on, services you can use, how to create strong retargeting ads, and how to use retargeting in conjunction with your normal marketing efforts.

How, And Why, Retargeting Works

You’re entering your credit card details for that product on an online store, and then suddenly something comes up and you forget all about your purchase. It’s happened to me, and it’s probably happened to you, too. Or, maybe you get second thoughts and decide to click on the “x” rather than the “purchase” button. It doesn’t matter how good your product or your advertising is, you’re never going to have a conversion rate of 100%. This is exactly where retargeting comes in. You are going after people who have gone through your buy process, or who have visited your event site, but for whatever reason chose not to buy. There are a lot of different reasons, some of which I have outlined above. Sometimes things come up, but other times, people need just a bit more convincing before they choose to buy tickets to your event. Since you can’t control for all of the various events of human existence, you’ll need to bring them back into the fold.

Retargeting is all about trying to bring these “lost sheep” back into the buying cycle for your event. And if you’re not using retargeting, you are basically leaving money on the table because of the “7 interactions” rule. So next time you see an ad for something on a website you just visited, it’s for that same reason - they want you to purchase the product, or at the very least, not forget about it.

There is another concept of marketing, and retargeting, called “top-of-mind awareness”. To demonstrate this, I’ll ask you to think of a soda brand. Now, I’ll ask you to think of a fast food pizza place. Now, I’m not a psychic, but I can make a good guess that you probably thought of Coca-Cola or Pepsi or Dr. Pepper for a soda, and for fast food, you probably thought of Papa John’s or Pizza Hut. It’s simple - they just happen to do the most advertising, so it keeps your brain aware of what they are. By keeping your event at the top-of-mind, you have a much better chance of causing people to think about your event, and thus become a customer.

As a side note, if you thought of something else, I’d be curious to know what it was! Leave it in the comments section below.

How To Create Strong Retargeting Ads

The basis of a retargeting ad is simple. You are trying to encourage people who have already visited your site to purchase tickets. The goal is to get people who have considered you before to become customers. So, with that in mind, let’s create a strategy revolving around getting more tickets sold. In order to create strong retargeting ads, you need to create a reason for people to return.

When you’re selling tickets, there needs to be some sort of “pull”, or “value proposition” for people to return. There are three basic strategies that you can use to entice ticket purchases.

Scarcity

“Buy your tickets now - seats are limited to 1,000 and we are at 75% capacity!” A powerful influencing principle in advertising is pushing that the number of spots or resources are limited. By retargeting visitors with this, you’ll really put the pressure on them to open up their wallets if they don’t want to miss out on your event.

Price Raises

“Get your tickets for the low price of $30 - on June 1st, prices increase to $40!” Raising prices on tickets as they get closer to the event date is a time-tested method of getting people to purchase tickets. Drive this point home at different parts of the event. Just like there is a Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO), there is also a fear of having to spend more money than you have to. By playing that up, you’ll get more sales than you would have thought otherwise.

Value Propositions

“This event is sure to be a hit, with Tony Robbins as our headlining speaker and talks with investing master Ray Dalio.” Sometimes, you just need to drive home the value that your event is providing to attendees. Just think about what is coolest about your event, and write the ad in such a way to imply that your event is going to be valuable to those who buy tickets.

I recommend using all three of these strategies if possible. If that’s not possible, you will be best served by using Value Propositions and then either Scarcity or Price Raises. The value of the event is raised by the scarce or expensive nature of it, so use them all in conjunction.

Retargeting Services

There are a lot of retargeting services out there. I’ll go over 3 that are quite widely known, and have a good track record. For these, all you will need to do is install a code snippet on your website or event page.

Adroll: Adroll serves retargeting ads on all the big platforms: Facebook, Google, and Bing. I’ve used Adroll before. It’s easy to get started, and they even offer to create display ads for you based off of current images that you have on your site. https://www.adroll.com/

Retargeter: Retargeter is a really good retargeting tool, but you have to have a lot of traffic (around 30,000 visitors per month) to get full use out of it. They’re focused on all different types of retargeting, from email to websites. https://retargeter.com/

Perfect Audience: Perfect Audience is a lot like Adroll in the sense that it’s pretty easy to use. They also have a data tool that shows you what websites your ads have been placed on. http://www.perfectaudience.com/

Want Retargeting on your Ticketbud page? Just message cs@ticketbud.com with the code snippet and we can install it for you.

Retargeting On Facebook: You can also retarget on Facebook directly. In order to do that, I recommend reading our guide on Facebook Advertising for organizers first. (link here)

Creating a Retargeting Audience is simple. You can do it through a Custom Audience on Facebook once you have a pixel installed. For your convenience, I’m reposting the specifics here: “Custom Audiences are a fantastic way to retarget individuals who have thought about purchasing tickets, but who have not yet done so. I personally recommend using the Facebook Pixel and then choosing the following actions of “Added to Cart”, “Initiated Checkout”, and “Viewed Website Content”. From here, you can set it to exclude “Purchase”, so you will only be targeting new customers and those who have abandoned the purchase process to encourage them to complete their action.”

Using Retargeting With Normal Ads

Retargeting ads should not be the same as your normal ads. Instead, they should supplement and support what your main ads are using. Remember - retargeting is all about re-engaging and re-introducing your event. Keep this in mind, and you’ll be on the road to success and sold-out venues.

Conclusion

If you’re not using retargeting to engage potential attendees, you are missing out on a cost-effective way to sell tickets. When you consider how advertising works, you will be leaving money on the table and empty seats at your event. By continuously providing interaction points as well as value propositions, you can make your event a “must-see” and capitalize on the FOMO. There is a lot to consider when writing and displaying these ads, but if you do, it will make a world of a difference.